道人報怪 The Servitor Reports a Monster
這大聖正在前邊發狠，搗叉子亂說，只見一個燒晚香的道人點了幾枝香，來佛前爐裡插。被行者咄的一聲，諕了一跌；爬起來看見臉，又是一跌；嚇得滾滾蹡蹡，跑入方丈裡，報道：「老爺，外面有個和尚來了。」那僧官道：「你這夥道人都少打。一行說教他往前廊下去蹲，又報甚麼？再說打二十。」道人說：「老爺，這個和尚比那個和尚不同：生得惡躁，沒脊骨。」僧官道：「怎的模樣？」道人道：「是個圓眼睛，查耳朵，滿面毛，雷公嘴。手執一根棍子，咬牙狠狠的，要尋人打哩。」僧官道：「等我出去看。」这大圣正在前边发狠，捣叉子乱说，只见一个烧晚香的道人点了几枝香，来佛前炉里插。被行者咄的一声，諕了一跌；爬起来看见脸，又是一跌；吓得滚滚蹡蹡，跑入方丈里，报道：「老爷，外面有个和尚来了。」那僧官道：「你这伙道人都少打。一行说教他往前廊下去蹲，又报甚么？再说打二十。」道人说：「老爷，这个和尚比那个和尚不同：生得恶躁，没脊骨。」僧官道：「怎的模样？」道人道：「是个圆眼睛，查耳朵，满面毛，雷公嘴。手执一根棍子，咬牙狠狠的，要寻人打哩。」僧官道：「等我出去看。」
逐句解 Line by line
Just as the Great Sage was venting his fury out front, storming and talking wild, a servitor who had come to burn the evening incense lit a few sticks and went to set them in the censer before the Buddha.
發狠 "to work oneself into a rage"; 搗叉子 a slang expression, "to make a fuss, talk provocatively"; 燒晚香 "to burn the evening incense."
At a bark from the Pilgrim he was so startled he tumbled over;
咄 (duō) a sharp shout; 諕 read xià (a variant of 嚇, "to frighten") — startled into a fall.
and when he scrambled up and saw the face, he fell over again;
The repetition — up, look, down again — is a stock comic beat for a fright at Wukong's monstrous features.
then, staggering and reeling in terror, he ran into the abbot's quarters and reported: “Your Reverence, there's a monk come outside.”
滾滾蹡蹡 (gǔn gǔn qiāng qiāng) "tumbling and staggering"; 得 read de; 和尚 read hé shàng.
The abbot said: “You servitors all deserve a beating.”
那 read nà, 都 read dōu; 少打 "just short of a beating," 少 shǎo. The abbot assumes it is the same shabby pilgrim.
“I told you once already to send him to squat under the front verandah — why report again?”
一行說 "said in one utterance, already told," the adverbial 一行 — 行 read xíng; 教 read jiào; 甚 read shén.
“Say it again and it's twenty strokes.”
The abbot's reflex is to threaten the messenger; his complacency is about to be shattered.
The servitor said: “Your Reverence, this monk is not like the other one: he's fierce and rough, and has no backbone.”
那 read nà, 得 read de; 沒脊骨 "spineless" — 脊 jǐ. The servitor means "no shape to him," describing Wukong's grotesque form.
The abbot said: “What does he look like?”
怎的 "how, in what manner" (vernacular = 怎麼樣). The abbot's disbelief presses for detail.
The servitor said: “He's got round eyes, splayed ears, a face all over hair, and a mouth like the Thunder Duke's.”
查耳朵 "jutting, splayed ears"; 雷公嘴 "a Thunder-Duke's beak" — the pointed, protruding mouth of the thunder-god, a stock description of Wukong.
“He's holding a cudgel, gnashing his teeth ferociously, looking for someone to hit.”
咬牙狠狠 "gnashing the teeth in fury"; 子 the suffix in 棍子.
The abbot said: “Let me go out and look.”
The abbot's disbelief sends him to see for himself — with predictable results.
The reversal begins in farce. A servitor burning the evening incense stumbles on Wukong mid-rant, is so terrified by his monstrous face that he falls over twice, and flees to report a "monster." The abbot, still assuming this is the same shabby pilgrim he dismissed, threatens the messenger with a beating for troubling him again — the same reflex of contempt, now aimed at his own man.
The servitor's stammered description — round eyes, splayed ears, a hairy face, a mouth like the thunder-god's, a cudgel in hand and teeth gnashing — is the novel's stock portrait of Sun Wukong seen through frightened eyes, and it draws the abbot out to look for himself. His complacent "Let me go out and look" is the last line he speaks from a position of safety; the confrontation in the next passage strips away his authority entirely.